


3 - I Have Pasts Inside Me I Did Not Bury Properly

by saltysarah



Series: For I Still Live [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Relationship, Family Feels, Gen, Happy Ending, Mandalorian Obi-Wan Kenobi, Other, Planet Melida | Daan (Star Wars), Politics, Post-Time Skip, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29976978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltysarah/pseuds/saltysarah
Summary: It's been a year. Things have changed, some even for the better.
Relationships: Cerasi/Obi-Wan Kenobi/Nield, Jango Fett/Myles the Mandalorian, Jaster Mereel/Khal the Mandalorian (OC)
Series: For I Still Live [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2193600
Comments: 13
Kudos: 167





	3 - I Have Pasts Inside Me I Did Not Bury Properly

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Through the Narrow Gate](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25911346) by [fadinglight123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fadinglight123/pseuds/fadinglight123). 



> The series title is from Quintus Ennius: Let no one weep for me, or celebrate my funeral with mourning; for I still live, as I pass to and from through the mouths of men. The title is taken from Ijeoma Umebinyuo, ‘Confessions’, Questions for Ada. Yes, it’s a very big title for the fluffiest part yet. Yes, there is a very big time gap between 2 and 3. Yes, it’s there intentionally.

_“Vod’ika!”_ Jango yelled across the entire compound, because there really was no point keeping a secret given his abilities in the Force and their whole encampment being such onion aunties. “You have a comm - it’s Melidaan!”

“Give the _ad’ike_ our greetings,” Jaster said with a smile. “It’s understood that everyone who isn’t here would offer their greetings, too.”

“Just like they’d be heartbroken if they also weren’t greeted in turn after I finish my comm,” he drawled. “I’ll finish this later, _Buir.”_

His piece said, he backflipped out the window, catching himself with the Force and jogging towards their comm room.

Jango was wearing a wicked grin when he found him. _“Vod’ika!”_ he crowed. “I’ve just been telling the _ad'e_ about your new interest in gymnastics.”

 _“Ori’vod,”_ he said, and then sighed when Jango’s grin didn’t diminish one bit. “You do realise you’re making it harder on yourself, too? The _vod’e_ will just comm you more often to keep an eye on me.”

“Unlike you, I actually pick up my comm.”

Ben rolled his eyes and began to herd Jango out of the room. “Then you can enjoy your very many future conversations with them, but for now, this one is mine. Good _bye.”_

He pointedly locked the door, only to hear Jango let out a loud and over-dramatic sigh. “My _vod’ika_ doesn’t love me anymore,” was all he heard before he walked away for his own peace of mind.

“I don’t know why I was ever under the impression that Myles could be a good influence,” he muttered. “I possibly thought so while under the influence myself.”

“Well, you have to admit it keeps things interesting,” Cerasi said with a laugh. “ _Su cuy’gar_ , Obi.”

 _“Su cuy,_ Ces, Nield.” He paused. “Nield is there, right?”

Cesari laughed again. “Yes, yes, he’s just lying on the table because he’s - wait for it - _feeling old_.”

“I’ll include you in my Remembrances tonight,” Ben snickered.

“It’s the disrespect that aged me before my time,” he heard Nield sigh, but the (slightly) older boy was still nowhere in sight.

“Dramatics aside, was there something you wanted?” he asked. “You don’t usually comm out of schedule.”

“Oh, yes,” Cerasi hummed, baring her teeth as she grinned. The fledgling hunter in him perked up at the sight. “We had news and thought you should know immediately. The _j_ _etiise_ came back, Obi.”

He went watchfully still. Jaster would complain that he’d been spending too much time with Ahlora, but it wasn’t the Togruta’s fault her adorable nat-born _ad’s_ favourite game was Hide and Hunt.

“What?”

“The _j_ _etiise,_ Obi, keep up,” Cerasi giggled.

“Not the _hut’uun shabuir dar’jetii,”_ Nield hissed, finally raising his head off the table just enough that Ben could see his dark eyes. “We would have kicked his _shebs_ straight off the planet and into the nearest black hole.”

Despite the topic, Ben had to smile. “Oh, Nield.”

“What?” the older boy demanded, a light flush darkening his image in the holo.

“Nothing,” he said. “It’s just- very, very good to see you. _Ori’haat,”_ he added, when Nield’s scowl deepened. “What did the _jetiise_ want? For that matter, who came?”

“Well, they didn’t exactly come,” Cerasi admitted. “Rod caught them on the scanner. _Hut’uun’e_ didn’t even have the basic decency to request atmos entry until Rizzo got impatient and fired a warning shot. As for who - it was the female, the one the Elders injured.”

“Tahl,” Ben said faintly, and abruptly wanted Jango back in the room with him. “Was she alone?”

“No, there was a weird toad with her,” Nield said, wrinkling his nose. “It _talked.”_

Talking toad? _Talking toad._ Oh, by the Force, Nield meant _Yoda._

“You just called the _Jetii’alor_ a _toad,_ Nield!” He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Fat lot of good the toad did you back in Coruscant,” Nield said scathingly. “Besides, it said it was retiring.”

“That toad is over 800 years old,” Ben said.

“It was the one who assigned you to that _hut’uun shabuir dar’jetii,_ right?” Nield demanded. “Clearly, it should’ve retired 800 years ago.”

This line of conversation obviously wasn’t going anywhere. “What did the _jetiise_ want?”

Cerasi gnawed her lip. “See, that’s the weird thing. They came here looking for _you.”_

Nield rolled his eyes. “2 years too late. If you’d died at the start you’d be nothing but bones now.”

“I can really feel how much you care, Nield.”

“You know me, I’m all about the love,” the older boy grinned, even sending him a wink. “See, when I told the _hut’uun’e_ that, the female had the gall to _cry_ on me.”

“She did seem genuinely upset by the fact that you didn’t want to talk to them,” Cerasi admitted. “She told us she’d been in a coma, recovering, and only just woke up. That’s why it took so long for them to send someone else, and she still came as quickly as she could. When I asked her why no one had come before then, she said the _hut’uun shabuir dar’jetii_ had lied in his report and said you’d left voluntarily.”

“Well, he wasn’t exactly _wrong,”_ Ben had to say.

“The _hut’uun_ conveniently left out the part where he threatened you and essentially gave you no choice,” Cerasi added dryly.

“But they found out?”

“Yeah, when the female woke up and spilt the beans,” Nield snorted. “When I asked what the _hut’uun_ had been doing for the past 2 years while they’d been sitting on their _shebs,_ I was told it was a private _Jetii_ matter. So I told them what you had or hadn’t been up to in the past 2 years was a private government matter and since you’re not _Jetii_ any longer, they could take their self-righteousness and shove-.”

“Was he just as colourful during his conversation with Yoda?” Ben asked Cerasi. Once, the thought of not being _Jetii_ would have killed him. Now, he barely even blinked.

She gave him a bright smile. “He was worse.”

“Myles is infectious,” Ben muttered, “like a virus. If he and Quin ever meet the galaxy just might implode.”

“They weren’t invited to stay, obviously,” Cerasi continued. _“Jetiise_ or not, the Young would have strung them up by their heels.”

“I can’t believe their arrogance,” Nield muttered. “Did they really think they could waltz back in 2 years later and just pick up where they left off? Does time work differently for _jetiise,_ Obi?”

“Maybe it’s a secret Council trick. I can’t say for certain, I’m not _Jetii_ any longer, did you know-.”

Nield interrupted by calling him something extremely uncomplimentary. Ben laughed in his face.

“I told them about your food allergies, you know, the _fatal_ ones, the ones they had _no idea_ about?” Cerasi asked.

Ben groaned. “Ces, you know that’s-.”

“I didn’t give them details _,_ obviously. I just had Khiyosh ask Ronei what would happen if you ate any one of those foods and described it to them in great detail.”

Nield began to snicker. “You have to tell ‘em the exact phrase you used, go on.”

“I will if I remember, and you’re not helping! Now _k’uur!”_

Nield mimed keeping his mouth shut.

“I shamed them for not even knowing that much, that even Young in a warzone knew nearly human wasn’t fully human, and that our medic had detected a dozen fatal differences in biology.”

Ben stared. “Ces, there are _5.”_

 _“K’uur.”_ Was it his turn to be shushed, then? _“_ A little hyperbole never hurt anyone.”

“And then Ces’ika pulled out the big guns.”

Ben snorted at Nield’s blatant admiration and told himself he absolutely did not want to be there to bask in that admiration in-person, no, sirree. He was absolutely not looking up the next break in his classes.

It was probably indigestion.

“That wasn’t enough?”

“Don’t be silly, Obi, of course not. I told them, and I quote: Isn’t it enough that you’re child stealers, now you want to be child killers, too?”

Ben couldn’t help wincing. “Wow. _Wow._ You really know to hit below the belt, huh, Ces.”

“They abandoned you in an active warzone, gave you _worse_ self-esteem than Young borne in an active warzone, and you still think it was too much?”

He sighed. “You know I don’t like thinking of myself in those terms. Whatever happened in the past, those days are long over and I’m never going back. I’m much happier now betweenthe _Haat Mando’ade_ and the Young.”

“And we are very, very happy to have you.”

Cerasi’s face softened and she reached for him through the holo. Melidaan wasn’t really that far away, but she and Nield were still a core part of the fledgling government, and Ben had his Integration classes to finish and his own duties as _ad be’Mand’alor,_ and that wasn’t even mentioning the bizarre shared custody both governments had over him and a good dozen or so _Mando’ad_ who called Melidaan their second home. 

They didn’t see each other in-person as often as they would have liked, but they did try to make up for it with their weekly comm calls.

He reached back, holo fingers and physical ones tangling. Nield had come up behind Cerasi, sliding his hands around her slim waist.

“I wanted to know what they did to the _shabuir_ who left you here,” the older boy muttered, leaning his head against her shoulder.

Nield had only gotten narrower and leaner like the edge of a knife, his wavy dark hair pulled back into a long, sleek nerftail and his skin burnt brown from long days out in the fields. Cerasi was still the tallest of them, and her broad shoulders had borne everything from the Young revolution to the new Melidaan government to their fledgling relationship to Nield’s stupid head. She really had shorn her hair off just like she’d promised, leaving only about an inch of thick brown fuzz covering her scalp.

“They could make all the noises they liked about having changed, but if they still weren’t seeing that the _shabuir_ was literally _dini’la,_ I would have ordered Rizzo to shoot them out of the air.”

“Nield, you can’t fire on Republic peacekeepers,” Ben said, exasperated. If the _dha’kad’au_ at his belt was humming, intrigued, that was absolutely none of Nield’s business.

 _“Mand’alor_ would’ve agreed with me,” the older boy muttered, pressing his face into Cerasi’s shoulder.

The worst part was, Jaster _would_ and Jango would just egg them on; Ben and Khal had long despaired of them both.Clearly he wasn’t getting through on that end, so he turned to Cerasi instead. “Tell me Rizzo didn’t shoot them down.”

She sent him a cheeky grin. “It was close. The toad was irritating.”

“That’s my- well. That _was_ my great-grand-teacher.”

“It was a waste of space,” Nield grumbled. “At least it was tiny, so it was a _tiny_ waste of space.”

Ben clicked his tongue. “That’s hardly the most pressing issue here, Nield.”

If he were being honest with himself, he hadn’t been expecting much from the Jedi Council. Jinn had been Yoda’s Grandpadawan - his _favoured_ Grandpadawan, and he’d survived a Padawanship under Master Duellist and Jedi Watchman Yan Dooku. Before, Ben had only met him the once, very briefly, because Jinn hadn’t gotten along with Dooku at _all._

But Ben had remembered the older man as being very gentle and very kind, if also a little stuffy because he hadn’t known what to do with small children, never mind that he had been a teenager at the time. Ben had been a very _small_ teenager, Dooku reminded him upon their reintroduction.

Jinn had been the Jedi’s Maverick, a warrior _and_ a diplomat, and such a vaunted lineage had been daunting to live up to. It had been easier to focus on that and not- Bruck, or Xanatos, which he’d learnt from his _mirjahaal’tsad_ sessions were just as important. [1]

Ben swallowed, feeling the Force blanket him like a cloak while the _dha’kad’au_ hummed at his hip. It had chosen him, it reminded him, and not just because he was very good at rooting out all the dirt in the crevices of its chassis. Ben mentally rolled his eyes at the _dha’kad’au’s_ ridiculousness and turned his attention back to the comm.

“Well?” he asked. “What happened to Jinn?”

Dooku had largely kept to his agreement with Jaster and never made any mention of the _Jetii_ during his rare comms and rarer visits - not to him, at least. Ben was self-aware to know he hadn’t been ready to hear about it at the time and Dooku had been respected his decision. However, now that Nield was offering the information…

“Well, he’s not _dead,_ which is a bit of a disappointment,” the older boy huffed.

_“Nield.”_

“He’s been grounded and removed from all diplomatic duties,” Cerasi said, her green eyes boring into him. “He isn’t even on Coruscant anymore, although the toad wouldn’t tell us where he was. Mandatory healing sessions every week. His- I didn’t really understand what the toad was saying about lines and all, but I took that to mean he won’t be able to ever take another student. They also reversed that bit about you having left them which, apparently, meant that you could go back at any time,” she finished with a huff, “but I agree with Ni’ika - too little, too late.”

 _“Now_ I’m Ni’ika?”

“You were being a hard-headed _di’kut_ earlier. Now you’re just a normal _di’kut.”_ That truly had been the first Mandalorian word most Young picked up. She turned to press a kiss to the side of his head, sweetly.

Ben hummed, uncertain about what he was feeling or what he should be feeling. Cerasi and Nield were being cute though, so that was a bonus.

“When you said ‘removed from all diplomatic duties’-?”

“Something with agriculture in between _jetii mirjahaal’tsad_ sessions?” Nield shrugged. “They used some strange _jetii_ word, I didn’t recognise it.”

“Agricorps?” he asked uncertainly.

Nield snapped his fingers. “That’s the one.”

Wow. _Wow._ That was incredibly ironic. Ben bit back a highly inappropriate giggle.

“How was Tahl?” he asked instead of pursuing that subject. He was going to need _so_ much meditation after this. The more he heard, the more he thought he was going to have to check in with Khal to see if they could recommend a _mir’baar’ur_ for private sessions, at least until he got this mess with the _jetii_ sorted out.

Cerasi and Nield exchanged a speaking glance. “She was blind,” Nield replied, “but she seemed okay.”

“She apologised,” Cerasi added. “She said that if she’d been conscious, she would never have allowed the _shabuir_ to leave you behind.”

Ben leant forward. “She wouldn’t have stayed.” It wasn’t a question.

“’It was not the way’,” Cerasi quoted in a rare moment of biting sarcasm.

“This is the Way,” he and Nield chorused in reply, almost automatically. The other 2 might be Melidaan but they had read the Integration guide, same as him, had undergone similar _mirjahaal’tsad_ sessions with Nezra. The Sullustan had moved to Melidaan with her _riduur’e_ , although it was a bit of a toss-up if she’d adopted the Young or if the Young had adopted her. Their relationship seemed pretty mutual most days.

Ben set his hands flat on the holo table, feeling the smooth material at his fingertips. “You know I never regretted my choice to stay.” The one to leave was still a toss-up most days, and not an argument he wanted to get into now. “I just- I’d never been good enough for anyone or anything before. If anyone else had stayed - if a _jetii_ had stayed, maybe fewer Young would have died.”

That he could even voice his doubts and fears now was a marked improvement. It still left him feeling vulnerable and weak-kneed, and in dire need of a cuddle. “I still wish there had been someone else. Someone more qualified.”

 _“Ord’inii,”_ Cerasi huffed, “they wouldn’t have been _you._ They’re a whole order of _hut’uun shabuir dar’jetii’e_ if they couldn’t see that, Obi’ika. You’ve always been enough for us. You were just right.”

Definitely a private session. He would definitely need to go cling to Khal extra hard for a bit first, just to bleed off the raw edges first. Ben blinked rapidly but couldn’t quite keep the tears from welling up.

“I wish you were here,” she said. “You look like you could use a hug.”

“I could mention it to Myles,” Ben said wetly. “He’d never let me go.” He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “And it wasn’t all bad. I told you about my crechemates, right? They were-.” He smiled to himself at the memory. “They were good to me.”

Bant and Quin, Garen, Reeft, and Siri. It had been over 2 years since he’d last seen Coruscant. Did they still remember him?

Cerasi and Nield exchanged a look. Ben glanced up only to catch the end of it. “What,” he said flatly.

“It’s a good thing that you told us about your crechemates,” Nield said. “I might’ve had Rizzo shoot them out of Melidaan airspace otherwise.”

“Why is your first instinct always to have Rizzo shoot things out of the sky?” Ben demanded, his heart in his throat.

Nield sent him a rakish grin. “She does have so much fun with it. Rod only eggs her on, you know that.”

“Who- who was it?”

“A male Kiffar,” Cerasi replied, smiling.

“Quinlan?” he whispered.

“Ni’ika is exaggerating, they weren’t actually in Melidaan airspace,” she said. “I don’t think his teacher knew he was flagging our systems, and he’d piggy-backed a signal off one of our moons. He’d been looking for you - he said they all had, in their own ways, and this was the first time one of them had gone so deep into the Outer Rim.”

“Quinlan,” he repeated, his mind going blank.

Cerasi’s smile widened. “He didn’t have a private comm yet, but he said you could get word to them through Dex. They’d leave messages, too, when he could.”

“I didn’t think Dex would help,” Ben said, choosing to focus on the easiest part of her words.

Cerasi snickered. “He thought you’d say that, and said he’d smack you next time you met.” She giggled. “He said they all would, for falling off the radar for so long. They miss you and they love you.” 

“Oh, Quin,” Ben sighed, a nostalgic feeling of fondness mixed with exasperation welling up inside him. “All of them?”

“He wouldn’t give us names,” Cerasi said, “but he counted 5- students? Including himself. Vos was the only one of them not temple-bound. They knew something was fishy with the way you’d left and tried to raise an inquiry, but were scolded for their attachment.”

“S’weird, not being able to blame _jetiise_ wholesale anymore,”Nield grumbled. "You'll notice that Tahl and the toad didn't say a word about them, and they came first." 

He huffed wetly. “Nield!”

“You’re not thinking of going back, are you?” the older boy probed.

He shook his head. “No,” he replied. “Even if Quin hadn’t contacted you- this hasn’t changed things.”

“But it helps,” Cerasi said, smiling gently at him. Those sessions were doing them all good.

“Yeah,” he admitted, “it really does.” He ran a hand through his hair. “This is- bizarre. What are the odds you’d be in contact with 2 different groups of _jetiise_ after all this time?”

Nield snorted. “We’re not done yet.”

“What?”

Cerasi laughed, leaning back into Nield. “I don’t know if this next one counts, since he was very adamant that he wasn’t contacting us as _jetii._ I thought you were exaggerating when you told us about that.”

“Oh, no,” Ben groaned with growing suspicion. At least this explained why Dooku and Jaster had been getting all shifty around him. He’d thought Khal was entirely too amused for someone plagued by rumours that their _riduur_ was courting someone else, no matter what Bo said.

“What exactly are you’ll up to?” he asked.

“Who says we’re up to anything?” Nield returned.

“Ni’ika, you’re the pretty Young, not the Innocent Young, remember?”

Nield told him to do something anatomically impossible for the humanoid being that he was.

Cerasi laughed.

“Really, we’re not,” she said. “It’s mostly Duchess Jenza and the _Mand’alor_ leading the charge. Dooku, as the duchess’s representative, wanted to speak to us personally, and Jaster was there to facilitate.”

“Leading the charge?” he repeated blankly. “Leading the charge for what?”

Cerasi was gnawing at her lip. “Nothing’s set in beskar, and you have to know Jaster would have read you in once he had more details.”

Ben drew in a deep breath and held it till his lungs began to ache, before releasing his trepidation into the Force. “The more you hedge about it just makes it worse.”

Nield’s eyes found his. “Secession.”

Ben caught his breath.

“Mandalorian space is slaver-free, as is the Serenno system,” Cerasi said. “The Outer Rim is starting to take notice, you know that.”

He nodded curtly. As per Khal’s request, he kept his nose out of politics, but talk was always rife at latemeal, and none of the Mandalorians censored themselves for his ‘delicate sensibilities’. Jango was always up to kick a slaver or 2 in the _shebs_ , and the whole system knew how the _Aliit be Mand’alor_ felt about slavery. There were 6 other freed slaves in his current _mirjahaal’tsad_ group, and 4 _ad_ in his and Bo’s playgroup.

“They wanted to know if we were open to take in refugees and freed slaves,” Nield said, “to help with terraforming and repopulation. Our population isn't going to increase naturally, not for the next decade or so at the very least." 

Ben chose to focus on immigration rather than...the other thing. Especially since a large percentage of Melidaan's current population was going to be looking at _them_ for that. “Whoever migrates there has to be fully informed of the Edicts,” he said, referring to the Young’s creed, not unlike the _Resol’nare_.

Cerasi’s face twisted. “They were thinking of just sending us the orphaned young. Unsurprisingly, there are quite a number of them.”

That was both heartbreaking and brilliant all at the same time.

“And a whole platoon of _mir’baar’ur,”_ Nield added, “that’s non-negotiable.”

Cerasi sent the older boy a fleeting smile over her shoulder. “Yeah, it’s still in talks and there’s a long way to go before the first ships land, if at all, but we wanted you to know.”

“Also, Dooku is _way_ more interesting than you make him out to be,” Nield said.

“Interesting?” Ben blinked. “How?”

His comms with Dooku had always been relatively calming and pleasant, the 2 of them bonding over their shared love of tea. He’d even sent him some shig samples, and of course the older man had returned the favour, procuring some rather unique flavours from his travels as a Jedi Watchman.

Ben had a sneaking suspicion that Dooku needed the humanising contact almost as much as he did; the man travelled alone and spent a majority of his time in dire situations, had only 1 confidant in the Order, and hadn’t had any contact with his Padawans in recent years.

To date, Ben knew that Dooku had reached out to his first Padawan, Rael, and his first Grandpadawan, Feemor. He also had his own scheduled holo-sessions with the Halls of Healing - those had started out as a concession to Khal, who had demanded them as a non-negotiable condition of Dooku’s continued contact with him - but Ben also knew that Dooku had since been convinced of the importance of Mind Healers.

“His scheduled holo with us was interrupted by a _very_ loud firefight,” Cerasi said dryly.

“Oh, right,” Ben said, “that does happen. I’ve given up trying to convince him to comm me back at his convenience. Apparently, if he did, he’d either never sleep or never be able to comm anyone at all.”

The first time had been mildly alarming, but Dooku made it clear such was the life of a Watchman on the Outer Rim, and he could handle himself. While Ben didn’t doubt the latter, he could take heart that he was already on the line if Dooku needed any help at all.

At least their conversation topics were calming.

“And you didn’t tell us?” Nield squawked.

“I didn’t think I had to?”

“He was impressive,” Cerasi giggled. “Jaster looked impressed, too.”

“Jas-.” He cut himself off with a disgusted noise, which only made Cerasi giggle more. “What has Bo been telling you?”

“Nothing we couldn’t see with our own eyes,” she replied sweetly.

Ben covered his eyes. The _ka’ra,_ Force, _Manda,_ something give him strength.

“I still wanted to hear what he had to say about his _shabuir_ of a student-.”

“Nield, you can’t say things like that!”

Cerasi waved his words away. “He said something worse, and I think Dooku was more tickled by him then anything, actually. Heaven knows Jaster was.”

Incorrigible. Absolutely utterly incorrigible.

“Yeah, apparently Dooku had been away on some peacekeeping mission and he’d had to find out about you from _Jaster.”_

Ben just nodded; he’d already known that. Dooku had been utterly furious the first time they’d commed, even if it wasn’t at him and he’d hid it well. Khal had very sweetly told Dooku not to comm again before he’d scheduled a session with a Mind Healer and learnt to deal with his temper.

“Yeah, so he’d yelled at the Council, yelled at the _shabuir,_ yelled at pretty much everyone involved, and then he tracked the _shabuir_ down and smacked him around in a spar.” Nield hummed. “I think what really convinced me was that he was kinda apologetic about not having been able to smack any sense into ‘em earlier.”

He blinked. “Dooku’s never mentioned any of that to me.”

Cerasi sent him a faint smile. “He said you weren’t interested in learning it, and Jaster agreed.”

“Well, there is that,” Ben said uncertainly.

“He even asked a friend on Coruscant to yell at the Council again in-person,” Nield added with a savage grin, “and get this: it was this friend who told him to get into contact with us, and they said, and I quote, ‘Children are our future.’”

That friend on Coruscant was almost certainly a Jedi Master, perhaps even a Councillor, if _yelling at the Council_ was something Dooku had requested. That phrase, though, was something Mandalorians lived and died by. To hear that espoused by a Jedi Councillor was…

“This is the weirdest conversation,” he had to say.

Cerasi began to snicker. “No, weird is when we start telling you about the look on Jaster’s face when Dooku started recounting his story for us-.”

“No!”

They were both laughing at him, loudly and freely, the sound of their joy everything he had ever wanted for them. Cerasi and Nield didn’t have parents anymore - by the end of the war, none of the Young did. No matter the good relations fostered between the Young and the _Haat Mando’ade_ still stationed on Melidaan, there was going to be an entire generation who would never be comfortable with calling anyone their parent.

Still, it was just semantics, given how Nezra and her _riduur’e_ doted upon the Young; how Ronei’s long-distance mentoring of Khiyosh often bled into mothering; how Jango despaired of Myles going missing every month like clockwork, only for him to be found among the Babbies on Melidaan (it was telling that Rizzo had never threatened to shoot him down).

That said, Cerasi and Nield hadn't begrudged his needing…something other, something the Young couldn’t provide. They might not have always been happy about how it kept them apart so much of the time, but Jango had locked them in a conference room to work out their lingering tension and, when that had failed, conspired with Myles to lock them in a supply closet instead.

Ben always maintained that getting revenge on them both was what really got them over the edge.

“That’s my _buir_ and grandteacher you’re talking about! Ugh, I don’t even know,” he groused, rubbing at his eyes.

“You should go find him after this and update him,” Cerasi hummed. Ben frowned.

“It’s not urgent, you know I’ll see him at latemeal.”

Nield grinned. “Maybe we just want confirmation on what’s brewing between him and Dooku. Tell Bo we’d like to change our bet placements-.”

“Oh, by the Force, tell her yourself,” Ben muttered.

“Oh, we will.” How Nield managed to make that sound threatening was beyond him.

“We’ve got to wrap this up,” Cerasi said apologetically. “We have a another meeting, and then lessons after.”

“It’s alright,” he said. “I have classes to attend, too.”

“And a _mirjahaal’tsad_ session too, if you can,” she suggested.

Ben smiled. “Yes, I’d like that.”

Nield hooked his chin over Cerasi’s shoulder. It wasn’t a comfortable position for the older boy since Cerasi had had another growth spurt, but he knew Nield did it because he knew Ben thought it made them look adorable.

“Same time this week?” he asked.

Cerasi smiled, putting her hands over Nield’s on her waist. “Same time every week. Come back to us, Obi’ika,” she said. _“K’oyacyi.”_

“I won’t stop trying,” he promised, holding his fist to his breast. She and Nield both looked _so happy_. He would never forget Nield’s bloody face and the grim expression he wore throughout the war, or Cerasi’s raggedly bright hair, dirt caking the roots, but he wanted to remember them this way, too.

The corridor outside was empty, but Ben knew where all the usual suspects were.

“Ben’ika!” Myles cheered from the roof, lazily spiralling down with his jetpack to land with a thump beside him. He smiled shyly, ducking his head when the young man put an arm around him and cuddled him close. A loud thump nearby told him Jango had arrived; where one was, the other wouldn’t be far behind.

“Don’t steal my _vod’ika, di’kut,”_ Jango growled, only to put his arms around them both so Ben was encased in a _beskar’gam_ sandwich. He had rarely felt safer.

“You made him my _vod’ika_ too,” Myles said brightly.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your training,” he began, only for Jango to shake his head.

“You didn’t interrupt a thing, Ben’ika. How are the _ad’e?”_

“Good,” he replied. “They have _jetii_ updates, but that can wait till latemeal. Bo roped them in on that stupid bet about Dooku and _Jas’buir;_ did you know?”

Jango groaned as Myles, predictably, started to laugh. “About that _osik_ bet? Yes, but not that the _ad’e_ were involved, _ka’ra.”_

“You do know that _‘Alor and Riduur’alor_ have to know about the bet,” Myles snickered. “The fact that they’re not saying anything about it-.”

 _“Ne’johaa,”_ Jango growled at him.

“They’re not acknowledging it,” Ben pouted.

“But they’re also not denying it,” Myles pointed out, so Ben pouted even harder. Myles chuckled, ruffling his hair. “Put those tooka eyes away, _vod’ika,_ they only work on your _buir_ and _ori’vod.”_

“Lies!” Jango yelped. “They don’t work on me!”

Myles and Ben exchanged a look. The last time Ben had given him the tooka eyes, Jango had folded like wet flimsi and had taken him cliff-diving with them 2 weeks ago. By some miracle or other, Khal _still_ hadn’t found out.

“Lies, all lies,” Jango muttered, breaking their little cuddle-huddle in the courtyard to begin herding them indoors. “The _ad’e_ called out of schedule. You’re sure you’re alright?”

“I need to meditate,” he admitted, knowing Jango could get worse than a mother nexu over her kits. “And I need to ask _Khal’buir_ if they could recommend a _mir’baar’ur_ for some private sessions. But it isn’t really bad news, I promise. Some of it’s actually good, I think.”

Jango stared down at him for a beat longer before he nodded. “I’ll take your word for it, Ben’ika,” he said. “Don’t make me regret it.”

 _“’Lek, Ori’vod,”_ he replied, leaning into his shoulder.

“The 2 of you are so kriffing cute,” Myles cooed, tapping his temple against Jango’s overhead, making him blush. Ben didn’t know about him, but yes, the sight of his fearsome _ori’vod_ blushing was mightily cute indeed.

“I’m gonna kick your _shebs_ later,” Jango muttered out of the corner of his mouth, his ears still on fire.

“Promises, promises,” Myles said loftily as Ben giggled, caught between the 2 older boys.

He was happy, and he was loved.

He was home.

**Author's Note:**

> So 3/3 of what is canon in this ‘verse is done. HOWEVER. I have updated the series description with a list of extras and AUs of this AU that I’m interested in writing. I am also aware that I have dropped Easter eggs and implications like they’re hot to mark the passage of a year. You are more than welcome to play ‘I spy’ in the comments, or just comment about what you wish could be covered in greater detail. I can’t promise I’ll write them all, but I can promise I’ll think very, very hard about it. 
> 
> [1] The term and concept of mirjahaal'tsad comes from fadinglight123's 'Through the Narrow Gate'


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